Panasonic aims Rs 12,000 crore sales from consumer durables by 2015

NEW DELHI: Japanese consumer electronics major Panasonic today said it is targeting a two-fold jump in revenue to Rs 12,500 rpt 12,500 crore from its consumer durables business in India by 2015, as part of an overall plan to become a Rs 25,000 crore business entity in the country.

In order to achieve its target, the company said it will enter new categories like the water purifier and air purifier that it launched here today.

"In the last fiscal, the consumer durables division had a revenue of Rs 3,200 crore. This fiscal we are targeting Rs 5,500 crore. We have a mid-term plan till 2015, by when we are targetting Rs 12,500 rpt 12,500 crore for the consumer durables division," Panasonic India Managing Director (Global Consumer Marketing Sector) Manish Sharma said.

The target is part of Panasonic India's overall plan of becoming a USD 5 billion (Rs 25,000 crore) entity in India by 2015, up from the current Rs 10,000 crore, he added.

In India, Panasonic has business in other segments such as dry cell batteries, carbon rods, industrial devices and automotive systems.

Elaborating the plans for the consumer durables segment, Sharma said: "We will be diversifying into many other product categories. Today we are launching water purifier and air purifier. Our target is to manufacture all home appliances in India by 2015".

The company is expecting Rs 500 crore sales by 2015 from the water purifier launched under the Panasonic Blue Water brand, priced between Rs 7,990 and Rs 25,490. The new product will be initially sold in NCR which will be followed by South India. It will be made available across India after six months.

The air purifier has been launched under Panasonic Nanoe brand and comes at a price range of Rs 19,995 to Rs 47,995.

Initially for the first six month these products will be imported from Japan after which assembly in India will start, he said.

"Currently we have almost finalised an agreement with Ion Exchange to outsource manufacturing of our water purifier and air purifier so that we can be competitive in Indian market. They have a plant at Baddi (in Himachal Pradesh), which enjoys excise benefit and our products are most likely to be manufactured there," Sharma said.

In order to meet the demand for its other products, Sharma said Panasonic is currently investing USD 200 million to set up a manufacturing facility at Jhajjar in Haryana.

"The plant will be operationalised by December this year and we will start with air-conditioners and washing machines. After that within one year we will roll out refrigerators and microwaves from there," he said.

The production capacity of air conditioners will be 10 lakh units annually, while for washing machines it will be three lakh units, Sharma added.

Panasonic India currently manufactures LCD panels at its Noida facility and automatic rice cookers at Chennai at its plant. The Noida plant has a capacity of six lakh units per annum and it will be expanded to 10 lakh units next year, Sharma said.

"Currently, we are importing our plasma and large TV sets from Thailand. Our plan is to manufacture them locally by 2015," Sharma said.

He, however, did not share investment details on these expansion.

When asked about the company's budget for advertising and marketing, Sharma said: "We are is spending Rs 400 crore this fiscal and by 2014-15, we will be investing around USD 300 million on advertising, marketing and other promotional activities".

At present, the company has 6,000 retail outlets across India and 1,300 after sales service centres.